AWS Cloud9

What is AWS Cloud9?

• AWS Cloud9 is a “cloud IDE” for writing, running, and debugging code
• Cloud9 comes prepackaged with essential tools for popular programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, PHP, and more, so you don’t need to install files or configure your development machine to start new projects
• It’s a full-fledged IDE
• It comes with an integrated web terminal. It is a real ssh session directly your browser, without the need of managing and storing ssh keys or IAM credentials on your local machine
• This web terminal can run on a new EC2 instance managed by AWS Cloud9 (EC2 env.), or you can bring your own instance (SSH env.)
• EC2 environments offer quite a handy cost-saving functionality, which means you can optionally configure them to hibernate after 30 minutes of inactivity (or more)
• AWS Cloud9 comes with the live debugging capabilities you’d expect from a modern IDE (currently only for Node.js, though)
• It enables collaborative coding and debugging sessions. You can share a Cloud9 environment with other IAM users and invite them with read-only or read-write permissions
• It comes with built-in support for AWS Lambda. This greatly simplifies the process of creating new Lambda Functions, updating and testing their code locally, deploying new versions, etc

How Does AWS Cloud9 Work?

Benefits:

1. Code with just browser : you can write, run, and debug applications with just a browser, without needing to install or maintain a local IDE
2. Code together in real time : You can share your development environment with your team in just a few clicks and pair program together
3. Build severless applications with ease : It preconfigures the development environment with all the SDKs, libraries, and plug-ins needed for serverless development
4. Direct terminal access to AWS : It comes with a terminal that includes sudo privileges to the managed Amazon EC2 instance that is hosting your development environment and a preauthenticated AWS Command Line Interface
5. Start new projects quickly : Cloud9’s development environment comes prepackaged with tooling for over 40 programming languages, including Node.js, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, and C++. This enables you to start writing code for popular application stacks within minutes by eliminating the need to install or configure files, SDKs, and plug-ins for your development machine

AWS Cloud9 Limitations :

• You can create up to 20 environments per user (max 10 open concurrently), 100 per account, and you can invite up to 8 members in each environment
• Live debugging is terrific, but only available for Node.js
• There is no support for “offline” development. Working offline may become a critical need in some scenarios/teams, although you can always download the whole environment to your local machine with one click (File > Download Project) and keep working locally