The digital age is now upon us in full force; smartwatches are available for businesses and consumers, huge amounts of data are easily accessible and IT security is something companies can outsource.

Deloitte recently reinforced the growth of this trend with the release of a new report, Australia's Digital Pulse. This detailed account, created with Australian Computer Society Australia, explains that digital technologies are now one of the fastest growing parts of the country's economy. What's more, their economic contribution has grown from $50 billion in 2011 through to $79 billion in 2013-14.

Let's take a look at some of the major changes expected in Australia as we start to go digital.

The changing employment space

More so than ever before, employment in the IT sector is expected to ramp up. This means growth of 2.5 per cent per year through to 2020. The report compared this to employment for the economy as a whole, which is set to grow just 1.6 per cent per year.

Interestingly, the gender pay gap is also changing, as it's now at 20 per cent in IT, whereas the national workforce average stands at 34 per cent.

Growth of the cloud

Coupled with advances in the employment space are big inroads in the cloud. Gartner explained that Australian organisations are expected to spend around $2.5 billion on data centre systems in 2015 – something that means a big push into the cloud.

Data centres themselves are also set to change.

"The future data centre is moving toward a more fluid architecture, focusing on workflow relative to how it interoperates and collaborates with other systems and cloud components to support digital business, rather than workload," said Gartner Managing Vice President Michele Caminos.

"It is also focused on what the work is doing and supporting, rather than where it is located. Organisations have to look at their data centre environment at a much higher level today."

It's easy to see just how big this change is, and what it represents. It's going to mean easier mobile working and greater data security.

The digital push Down Under will mean new IT jobs.

And what does all this mean for businesses?

A move to a digital economy is a significant change for any country, impacting government, consumers and especially businesses.

In effect, this shift means there will more capable and qualified IT personnel available for organisations to recruit, which in turn will enable the businesses to scale up IT endeavours and take advantage of new technologies (mobile, big data, the cloud) and processes (remote working).

Of course, organisations will also want to ensure that all staff understand IT to an extent, and this is where an ITIL IT framework can prove useful.