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Belgium 10-3-26 All Members Physical english

The Composable Enterprise: Engineered with AI

From modular business design to AI-driven pipelines, architectures, and operationsA composable enterprise is built on modular processes, API-driven ecosystems, low-code platforms, and cloud-native services. It promises speed and adaptability by allowing organisations to reconfigure their capabilities as conditions change. However, modular design alone does not guarantee resilience; the way these systems are engineered and operated is just as important.This is where AI is beginning to make a difference. Beyond generating snippets of code, AI is already influencing how entire systems are developed and run: accelerating CI/CD pipelines, improving test coverage, optimising Infrastructure-as-Code, sharpening observability, and even shaping architectural decisions. These changes directly affect how quickly new business components can be deployed, connected, and retired.In this session, we will examine how CIOs can bring these two movements together:Composable design is the framework for flexibility and modularity.AI-augmented engineering is the force that delivers the speed, quality, and intelligence needed to sustain it.The pitfalls of treating them in isolation: composability that collapses under slow engineering cycles, or AI that only adds complexity without a modular structure.The discussion goes beyond concepts to practical implications: how to architect organisations that can be recomposed at speed, without losing control or reliability. The outcome is an enterprise that is not only modular in design but also engineered to adapt continuously under real-world conditions.

Belgium 12-3-26 Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

Tomato! Tomato! Tomato! Get your tomato now! Every vendor sells security. And every company depends on vendors, partners, and suppliers. The more digital the business becomes, the longer that list grows, and so does the attack surface. One weak link, and there is always one, or one missed update, and trust collapses faster than any firewall can react. What used to be a procurement checklist has become a full-time discipline. Questionnaires, audits, and endless documentation prove that everyone’s “compliant,” yet incidents keep happening. So it’s clear: the issue isn’t lack of policy, or maybe a bit, but mostly lack of visibility. Beyond a certain point, even the most secure organisation is only as safe as its least prepared partner (or an employee who hadn’t had their morning coffee). So how far can you trust your vendors? How do you check what you can’t control? And when does assurance become theatre instead of protection? Does it come at a different cost? Let’s exchange what works and what fails in third-party risk management: live monitoring, shared responsibility models, contractual levers, and the reality of building trust in a chain you don’t own. A closed conversation for those redefining what partnership means when risk is shared but accountability isn’t.

Belgium 19-3-26 Country Members Physical french

Vendor Detox: La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ?

Moins de Partenaires : La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ? Le problème est la prolifération des fournisseurs : trop d'outils causant de la complexité, une taxe d'intégration paralysante et de la redondance. La Taxe d'Intégration est le coût caché (en temps, en échecs et en ressources) d'essayer de faire fonctionner ensemble des systèmes disparates. Cet échange se concentre sur des stratégies éprouvées pour simplifier de manière agressive le parc technologique, consolider les fournisseurs et élever certains fournisseurs clés au rang de partenaires stratégiques.

March 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

March 24, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Killing Zombie Projects: Knowing when to stop, restart, or quietly let go

Every organisation has them, projects that keep running long after their purpose has faded. No one remembers who asked for them, but shutting them down feels riskier than keeping them alive. And eventually, people stay assigned, budgets stay allocated, and energy drains into work that no longer matters. Inertia at its finest.

March 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Measuring Value in AI Initiatives: Defining ROI, accountability, and measurable outcomes in complex environments

AI projects continue to multiply, but proving their value remains difficult. Most organisations can track activity, not impact. Dashboards count pilots and models, yet few translate to measurable business outcomes. The result is familiar: success stories without clarity on what they actually delivered.

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A modernization journey with zero downtime

Carey International's aging on-premise systems struggled to meet growing demands for security, high availability, and cost efficiency. Carey migrated its applications to a cloud-based architecture using Red Hat OpenShift® in AWS (ROSA) and IBM WebSphere Liberty container platform. They also adopted IBM Instana for real-time monitoring and proactive maintenance.

Legacy limitations and the need for change

Carey International, Inc.—a storied name in the premium ground transportation industry—has been redefining luxury travel since the 1920s. Its sprawling operation comprise a robust network of subsidiary, franchise and affiliate partners across 400 cities worldwide. With a staggering record of 550 thousand trips in 69 countries in 2022, its centralized reservation, billing, customer service and event management systems represent a complex backbone of operations that demands relentless uptime and security. However, dated legacy systems faced modern pressures, prompting Carey to embark on a transformative journey of application modernization.

Navigating a veritable minefield of operational challenges, Carey's legacy systems—sprawling across a mix of traditional platforms including IBM® WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment, Red Hat® JBoss® Enterprise Application Platform and Oracle databases—began to strain under customer demands for enhanced security, the need for high-availability services, and rising costs—all exacerbated by the specialized skills required to maintain these aging technologies. The tipping point came with the realization that its systems could not keep up with a swiftly changing digital landscape without significant operational risk and unforeseen expenses.

Adopting cloud fluency with IBM WebSphere Liberty

Carey's strategic move to cloud architecture, specifically Red Hat OpenShift® in AWS (ROSA), marked a paradigm shift towards agility and scalability. By transitioning its Java® applications to the IBM WebSphere Liberty container platform, Carey embraced a seamless, efficient system capable of meeting the needs of an operation that never sleeps. Alongside, Oracle databases moved to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and APIs were elegantly managed, demonstrating how modern containerization and cloud-native services could refurbish even the most deeply rooted systems.

The introduction of IBM Instana® to Carey's tech stack was pivotal. Legacy applications became transparent under the IBM technology’s fully-automated real-time observability platform. Instana provided Carey with the X-ray vision to pinpoint performance bottlenecks, resource anomalies and operational issues in real-time, ushering in a new era of reliability and proactive maintenance.

The final leap into modernized operations was a meticulously planned cutover—a testament to Carey's all-in commitment to modernization. With thorough documentation and practice runs, the team executed a smooth transition. Carey has experienced nearly zero unplanned or planned downtime since the migration. Performance and reliability numbers have met and often exceeded those for the on-premise system.

The measure of success in a modernized infrastructure

In the wake of these sweeping changes, Carey now boasts an architecture that not only competes with but surpasses the on-premise performance metrics of yore. Zero downtime has become the new standard, and the nimble, rolling release process signifies a newfound operational agility. As Carey continues to fine-tune its system and explore further cost optimizations with Red Hat and AWS, the narrative is clear: application modernization elevates service capabilities, bolsters security and ensures a company's relevance in today's dynamic tech environment.

Carey's journey to application modernization with WebSphere Liberty and Instana is more than a case study of technological upgrade—it is a celebration of timely transformation, matching the pace of an ever-evolving industry while laying a sturdy, future-proof foundation for the legacy of luxury travel.

IBM, Red Hat and AWS were a great team and provided hands on assistance to ensure project success. IBM Instana was key to quickly identifying problems and their root causes as well as critical to monitoring Red Hat OpenShift during load testing, go-live and in production. All applications were migrated in May 2023 during a six-hour outage window. To date, performance and reliability exceed the on-premise system. Releases into the cloud platform are simple, fast and non-disruptive. Development pipeline processes are also greatly streamlined.

About Carey International, Inc.

Carey (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a trusted leader in innovative ground transportation solutions—delivering unparalleled safety, reliability and general peace of mind to the world's most discerning travelers since 1921.

Solution components

IBM® Instana®IBM WebSphere® Liberty

Technologies

IBM Instana Observability IBM WebSphere Liberty

Partners

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Healthcare Circle

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CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.