Behind every great technical book is an author who has spent years solving real problems in production environments. Nico Brandt is one of Dargslan's most prolific authors, with 12 titles covering Linux administration, DevOps practices, and infrastructure automation. His books are known for their practical, no-nonsense approach that gets readers from concept to implementation quickly.
Background and Career
Nico's journey in IT started in the early 2010s as a junior system administrator at a mid-sized hosting company in the Netherlands. Managing hundreds of Linux servers daily taught him the value of automation early — a philosophy that would define his entire career and writing style.
"I was spending 80% of my time doing repetitive tasks," Nico recalls. "Installing packages, configuring services, checking logs — the same operations on dozens of servers. The moment I wrote my first Bash script that automated a four-hour task into a 30-second execution, I knew automation was my future."
Over the next decade, Nico worked his way through system administrator, DevOps engineer, and infrastructure architect roles at increasingly large organizations. He managed infrastructure for e-commerce platforms handling millions of transactions, financial services requiring five-nines uptime, and SaaS companies scaling from startup to enterprise.
Writing Philosophy
Nico's writing philosophy can be summed up in three principles:
1. Start with the Problem
Every chapter in Nico's books begins with a real-world problem that readers are likely facing. "I don't start with theory," he explains. "I start with a situation: your server is down, your deployment failed, your configuration isn't applying correctly. Then I show how to solve it step by step."
2. Every Example Must Be Runnable
Nico is adamant that every code example in his books must work when copy-pasted. "There is nothing more frustrating than following a tutorial and hitting an error because the author didn't test their own examples. Every command, every configuration file, every script in my books has been tested on a clean system."
3. Explain the Why, Not Just the How
"Anyone can follow instructions. But understanding why a configuration works a certain way makes you a better engineer. I always explain the reasoning behind each decision so readers can adapt the solution to their own environment."
Most Popular Books
Linux System Administration Handbook
Nico's flagship title covers everything from basic file management to advanced networking and performance tuning. With over 30 chapters, it serves as both a learning guide and a daily reference for working administrators.
Ansible Automation: From Zero to Production
This book reflects Nico's passion for automation. It takes readers from writing their first Ansible playbook to managing production infrastructure with roles, vault, and CI/CD integration.
Docker Fundamentals
Written for the system administrator transitioning to container-based workflows, this book bridges traditional server management with modern containerization practices.
Current Focus
In 2026, Nico is focused on platform engineering and internal developer platforms. He's working on new content about Kubernetes operators, GitOps workflows, and infrastructure self-service portals.
"The industry is moving toward giving developers more control over their deployments while maintaining operational standards," Nico observes. "Platform engineering is the bridge between DevOps and developer experience, and I'm excited to help IT professionals navigate this transition."
Advice for Aspiring IT Authors
"Write about what you've actually done, not what you've read about. Readers can tell the difference between theory-based writing and experience-based writing. If you've solved a problem at work, you already have material for a great tutorial."
