---
title: "Reference Architecture for a Utility's Network Information Management System"
description: Implementation options for the reference architecture for a Network Information Management System
source_url: "https://architecture.arcgis.com/en/architectures/network-management/implementation-options/implementation-options.html"
md_url: "https://architecture.arcgis.com/en/architectures/network-management/implementation-options/implementation-options.md"
---
# Network information model implementation options

A network information management system is built upon a network information model. In designing a network information management system it’s important to understand the relationship between model intricacies and their effect on capabilities enablement.

The three implementation options that are provided in this reference architecture should be used as a guide to help inform decisions. While not exhaustive, the framework of these implementation options are intended to provide guidance in making appropriate choices to deliver capabilities in alignment with architectural best practices.

The choice of implementation option should be based on the business, functional, and technological needs of the organization and can be built upon incrementally allowing organizations to realize the full benefit of rich capabilities in an agile fashion.

Implementation options include:

- Option 1: [User provided non-topological data model](/en/architectures/network-management/implementation-options/user-provided-non-topological.md)
- Option 2: [User provided topological network data model](/en/architectures/network-management/implementation-options/user-provided-topological-network.md)
- Option 3: [Industry standard data model](/en/architectures/network-management/implementation-options/industry-standard.md)

The implementation option choice can influence deployment patterns as all options are not supported across [SaaS](/en/architectures/network-management/deployment-patterns/saas.md), [Windows and Linux](/en/architectures/network-management/deployment-patterns/windows-linux.md), and [Kubernetes](/en/architectures/network-management/deployment-patterns/kubernetes.md) deployments.