Cloud computing and information management are among the hot topics at Forrester Research's European IT Forum, taking place in Lisbon this week.

The four-day annual conference focuses on the role IT plays in boosting innovation and driving transformation in businesses. Ahead of the event, conference chairman Simon Yates told Computing that the growing challenge of data management would be a key area of discussion.

"Companies have a pretty good handle on dealing live information, but long-term archiving and data recovery is still something of a black art," he said.

"It has its roots in storage, but its application is in information management. There is a legal risk that when auditors show up to check what you've been doing, and they demand access to certain emails or records, you won't be able to find them."

Another talking point will include the rise of cloud technologies – software and services provided through the internet - which could soon render corporate datacentres obsolete, according to Forrester.

"We believe that cloud computing will lead to a significant transformational shift in infrastructure over the next five years. Why would you spend £20m on building yourself a new datacentre if you can get a reliable infrastructure from a service provider?" said Yates.