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Welcome — in this lesson we introduce AWS Cloud9, a browser-based integrated development environment (IDE) hosted on AWS. Docker and container labs are covered separately; here we’ll focus on what Cloud9 is, why it’s useful, and how it fits into development workflows that interact with AWS services.

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What is AWS Cloud9?

AWS Cloud9 is a cloud-hosted IDE that delivers a full-featured code editor and built-in terminal accessible from your browser. It provides an experience similar to popular local editors (VS Code, Atom) but runs on a managed environment in AWS, so you can write, run, debug, and test applications without relying on a high-powered local machine. Key advantages:
  • Familiar, full-featured editor available in the browser.
  • Preinstalled tools and runtimes for popular languages.
  • Built-in terminal with direct access to AWS CLI and SDKs.
  • Quick setup and reproducible development environments.
  • Tight integration with AWS services like Secrets Manager, S3, RDS, and Lambda.
The image provides an overview of Cloud9 in AWS, highlighting features like cloud-based integrated development, direct terminal access to AWS, and serverless application development. It shows a flow diagram with writing, running, and debugging code in a browser, and using prepackaged tools for popular programming languages.
When to choose Cloud9
  • Rapid prototyping or demos where you need an environment that’s consistent across team members.
  • Development that needs direct, authenticated access to AWS resources (CLI, SDKs, or interactive debugging against managed services).
  • Lightweight workstations or remote contributors who don’t want to install dependencies locally.
Use cases and examples:
  • Retrieve secrets from AWS Secrets Manager during development.
  • Upload/download assets to Amazon S3.
  • Connect to RDS or other databases for integration testing.
  • Execute load tests and automation scripts from the built-in terminal.
The image is an overview diagram of AWS Cloud9, highlighting its features such as a rich code-editing experience, cloud-based IDE, direct terminal access to AWS, and support for serverless application development. It includes a visual flow from the IDE to serverless applications, preconfigured environments, testing, and debugging.
How Cloud9 is hosted (and why it feels “serverless”) Under the hood, Cloud9 provisions an EC2 instance that runs your development environment. AWS manages the instance lifecycle for you — environments can automatically stop when idle and restart when you return. Authentication and permissions are handled through IAM, so access to AWS resources aligns with your AWS credentials without manual instance configuration.
Although Cloud9 runs on EC2, its managed lifecycle (auto-start/stop, preconfigured tools, and IAM integration) gives you a serverless-like experience from a developer perspective.
The image is an overview diagram of AWS Cloud9, illustrating its integration with AWS services, featuring icons for Cloud9, a managed EC2 instance, AWS CLI, and command execution. It also highlights features such as a rich code-editing experience, cloud-based IDE, direct terminal access, and serverless application development.
Quick comparison: Cloud9 vs Local IDE Resources and further reading
Practical note for this course: the lab environment may provide a VS Code–based editor that behaves similarly to Cloud9. We reference Cloud9 throughout the course to illustrate workflows and integrations with AWS services, even if your lab uses a different browser-based editor.
That’s it for this lesson. See you in the next lesson.

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