How to Use AWS Cloud9 Instead of EC2 and SSH (Step-by-Step)

If you have ever tried to learn AWS on a Windows machine, you know the friction. Setting up an SSH client, generating key pairs, configuring a terminal emulator, and then finally connecting to your EC2 instance, only to realize you forgot to open port 22 in your security group. That entire chain of steps can stop a beginner cold before they ever write a single line of code.

Cloud9 cuts through all of that. It is a browser-based IDE built directly into AWS. When you create a Cloud9 environment, AWS quietly spins up a t2.micro EC2 instance behind the scenes, pre-loads the AWS CLI, and gives you a bash terminal and a code editor right inside your web browser. No SSH client needed. No key pairs to lose. No local configuration required. You just click, wait about four minutes, and you are running commands against your AWS account from anywhere with an internet connection.

What You’ll Walk Out With

How to find Cloud9 inside the AWS console under Developer Tools
The exact clicks to create a new Cloud9 environment in under five minutes
Why t2.micro is the right instance type for learning and coursework
How the default VPC setting removes all networking configuration for you
How to verify your AWS CLI access by running real commands in the Cloud9 terminal
The one storage limitation that catches beginners off guard and how to protect your work
How Cloud9 compares to the traditional EC2 plus SSH workflow for learning AWS
How to figure out which cloud or tech skill is actually worth your time at finder.platformproof.com

What Is AWS Cloud9?

Cloud9 is Amazon’s browser-based integrated development environment. You access it from the AWS Management Console under the Developer Tools section. Instead of writing code on your local machine and uploading files to a remote server, you write and run your code entirely in the cloud. The editor looks similar to popular desktop editors like Atom or VS Code. You get a file browser on the left, a code editor in the center, and a bash terminal at the bottom of the screen.

The key thing to understand is what happens under the hood when you create a Cloud9 environment. AWS launches a real EC2 instance to power it. That instance runs your terminal, stores your files while the environment is open, and handles all the compute. Cloud9 is not magic. It is a clean wrapper around EC2 that removes the manual configuration steps that slow beginners down.

Before Cloud9 was widely available, the standard workflow for working with AWS from a Windows machine looked like this: download PuTTY or another SSH client, generate an RSA key pair in the AWS console, download the .pem file, convert it to a format PuTTY understands, configure your connection settings, and then finally connect. That workflow is not wrong, but it adds a lot of steps before you even start learning the AWS services you actually came to learn. Cloud9 replaces every one of those steps.

How to Find Cloud9 in the AWS Console

Log into your AWS account and look at the top navigation bar. Click on Services and scroll to or search for Developer Tools. Cloud9 is listed there alongside other developer-focused services like CodeBuild, CodePipeline, and CodeDeploy. Click Cloud9 and you land on the Cloud9 dashboard. If you have never created an environment before, the dashboard shows an empty list and a prominent Create environment button.

The Developer Tools section is worth exploring beyond Cloud9 once you are comfortable with the basics. The entire AWS suite of developer tools is designed to help you build, test, and deploy applications faster than managing infrastructure by hand. Cloud9 is your entry point into that set of services because it gives you a working compute environment in the least number of steps.

Step-by-Step: Creating Your First Cloud9 Environment

Click Create environment. AWS asks you for a name. Choose something descriptive. In the video, the name “Udemy test” is used as an example. Pick whatever makes sense for what you are working on.

After naming the environment, you move to the configuration settings screen. This is where the instance type is selected. The video specifies t2.micro, and that is all you need for learning, coursework, or running CLI commands. The t2.micro instance type is also eligible for the AWS Free Tier, meaning you pay nothing for the first 750 hours per month during your first 12 months as an AWS customer. For a learning environment that you open for a few hours a day, you will likely stay well within that limit.

The next setting is VPC configuration. A VPC, or Virtual Private Cloud, is the private network your AWS resources live inside. AWS automatically selects your default VPC for the Cloud9 environment. You do not need to create or configure any networking. For beginners, this is a significant time saver. The whole point of using Cloud9 is to get to the actual AWS learning faster, and letting AWS handle the VPC configuration does exactly that.

Click Next Step and then click Create Environment. AWS starts building your environment. Expect this to take about four minutes. Behind the scenes, AWS is launching the underlying EC2 instance, installing the Cloud9 agent software, configuring the environment, and connecting it to the Cloud9 web interface. When the process finishes, your browser loads directly into the Cloud9 IDE and you are ready to work.

Navigating the Cloud9 IDE

When the Cloud9 environment finishes loading, you see three main areas. On the left side is a file explorer panel. This is where you create new files and folders for your project. You can right-click in this panel to create a new file, just as you would in any desktop file browser.

In the center of the screen is the code editor pane. It supports syntax highlighting for dozens of programming languages including Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Ruby, and Go. The editor works the same way as the Atom IDE or similar desktop tools. You open a file from the left panel, edit it in the center pane, and save your changes.

The bash terminal at the bottom of the screen is the most important part for AWS learners. This is a real bash shell running on your EC2 instance. You can run any Linux command here. More importantly for AWS work, the AWS CLI is already installed and the environment is already authenticated with your AWS account. You do not need to run aws configure or manually set up access keys. Cloud9 handles the IAM permissions for the environment automatically.

Running Your First AWS CLI Commands in Cloud9

To verify that the AWS CLI is working, type aws –version in the terminal and press Enter. The terminal prints the version of the AWS CLI installed on your Cloud9 instance. This is a fast confirmation that the CLI is ready to use.

From there you can run real AWS service commands. The video demonstrates running aws s3 ls to list the S3 buckets in the account. The terminal returns a bucket named something like “test-to-make-sure-it-works-0629”. Navigating to the S3 console in the browser confirms that the same bucket appears there. The Cloud9 terminal has real, authenticated access to the same AWS account you are logged into in the browser. What you can do in the console, you can also do from the Cloud9 terminal with the right CLI commands.

This authenticated access is where Cloud9 provides a real advantage over the traditional EC2 plus SSH setup. With a standard EC2 instance, you would need to attach an IAM role to the instance manually or configure access keys inside the instance to give it AWS API access. Cloud9 takes care of this automatically. The result is that you can start running AWS service commands within minutes of creating your environment, without any extra configuration.

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The Storage Warning You Need to Hear Before You Close Cloud9

There is one limitation you must understand before you do any serious work in Cloud9. The EC2 instance that powers your environment uses non-persistent storage by default. If you close the environment and the underlying instance stops, any files you created inside the environment will be deleted when the instance is terminated.

The video states this directly: this is an EC2 instance with non-persistent storage. If you do not have block storage attached to it, you will lose everything when you close it. This is not a bug. It is a characteristic of how EC2 instance store works. Cloud9 just makes it more visible because the environment feels like a local desktop tool, which can create a false sense of security about your files.

You have two practical options for keeping your work safe. First, attach an EBS (Elastic Block Store) volume to the Cloud9 instance. EBS is persistent block storage that survives when the EC2 instance stops and restarts. Second, push your code to a version control repository like GitHub or AWS CodeCommit before you close the environment. Either approach works well. The discipline to save your work before closing Cloud9 is a habit worth building from the start.

Cloud9 vs. Direct EC2 and SSH: What Actually Changes

For anyone learning AWS, especially on a Windows or Linux desktop, Cloud9 provides meaningful advantages over the traditional EC2 plus SSH method.

With the traditional method, you spend time on setup that has nothing to do with the AWS services you want to learn. You configure an SSH client, handle key pairs, troubleshoot connection errors related to security groups, and eventually get to the actual content. That setup overhead is real friction for beginners.

Cloud9 removes that friction completely. You create the environment in the AWS console, wait four minutes, and you are inside a working bash terminal with full AWS CLI access. The total time from zero to running AWS commands is under ten minutes, which is significantly faster than the traditional path for most beginners.

The tradeoff is control and flexibility. A direct EC2 instance gives you full control over the machine. You can install any software, configure custom networking, expose ports, and use any SSH client or workflow you prefer. Cloud9 is opinionated. It works well for development and learning use cases but is not the right tool for managing production servers or building custom network configurations. For the audience this tutorial targets, people learning AWS for the first time, Cloud9 is clearly the right starting point.

Honest Drawbacks of Using AWS Cloud9

Cloud9 is a strong tool for beginners, but it has three real drawbacks worth naming before you commit to it as your main development environment.

First, it requires an internet connection at all times. Because the IDE runs in your browser and the compute runs in AWS, you cannot use Cloud9 offline. If you work in environments with unreliable connectivity, this is a genuine problem. Desktop editors like VS Code or Atom work without a connection. Cloud9 does not. For most learners in 2024, this is a minor concern, but it is worth knowing upfront.

Second, Cloud9 costs money when it runs. The t2.micro instance type is Free Tier eligible for the first 12 months for new AWS accounts, but once that period ends or if you choose a larger instance type, you pay for every hour the environment is running. AWS does include an auto-hibernation feature that stops the underlying EC2 instance after a configurable period of inactivity, which helps manage costs. Still, if you leave multiple Cloud9 environments running across different AWS accounts or regions, charges add up. Check your AWS Cost Explorer regularly.

Third, the default non-persistent storage is an ongoing risk. This is mentioned in the transcript and it is worth repeating because it catches beginners by surprise. Until you establish a consistent habit of committing your code to a repository or attaching an EBS volume, every session you work in Cloud9 carries the risk of losing your files when you close the environment.

A Quick-Start Plan for Your First Cloud9 Session

Log into your AWS console, go to Developer Tools, and click Cloud9.
Click Create environment, give it a descriptive name, and click Next Step.
Select t2.micro as your instance type and leave the VPC setting on the default.
Click Create Environment and wait about four minutes for the environment to launch.
Open the bash terminal at the bottom of the IDE and run aws –version to confirm the CLI is installed.
Run aws s3 ls to verify your environment has authenticated access to your AWS account.
Before closing the environment, push any code you want to keep to a Git repository or note the files you need to save.
Check your AWS billing dashboard after your first week to understand your Cloud9 usage costs.

Find Your X

Cloud9 lowers the barrier to learning AWS significantly. But AWS is a massive platform with hundreds of services, and knowing which ones are worth your time depends on your goals. If you are trying to build income online, freelance as a cloud developer, or transition into a tech career, the right starting point varies based on what you already know and where you want to go.

Take a few minutes at finder.platformproof.com to answer a short set of questions about your skills, experience, and income goals. The finder gives you a clear, specific recommendation so you spend your learning time on the path most likely to pay off for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AWS Cloud9 free to use?

Cloud9 itself has no additional charge as a service. What you pay for is the underlying EC2 instance that powers your environment. If you use a t2.micro instance and your AWS account is within its first 12 months, you are eligible for the Free Tier, which covers 750 hours of t2.micro usage per month. After your first year, or if you use a larger instance type, standard EC2 pricing applies. Always check your AWS Cost Explorer to monitor what you are spending.

Do I need to know how to use SSH to use Cloud9?

No. That is one of the main reasons Cloud9 exists. The entire SSH configuration process, key pairs, SSH clients, security group rules for port 22, is handled for you automatically. Cloud9 connects to the underlying EC2 instance through the browser without requiring any SSH setup on your part. This makes it particularly useful for Windows and Linux users who do not have a native SSH workflow already in place.

What is a t2.micro instance and is it powerful enough for learning?

A t2.micro is one of the smallest EC2 instance types available. It comes with 1 virtual CPU and 1 GB of memory. For running AWS CLI commands, following along with tutorials, writing and testing small scripts, and exploring AWS services, it is more than sufficient. It is not suitable for training machine learning models, processing large datasets, or running production workloads, but for the use case of learning AWS through hands-on experimentation, it handles everything you will need.

What happens to my files when I close Cloud9?

By default, files stored in the Cloud9 environment use the EC2 instance’s local storage, which is not persistent. When the instance stops or terminates, those files are gone. To keep your work safe, push code to a Git repository like GitHub or AWS CodeCommit before closing the environment, or attach an EBS volume to the instance for persistent storage. AWS also offers a feature called environment hibernation that suspends the instance without terminating it, which preserves your files temporarily, but this is not a reliable long-term backup strategy.

Can I install additional packages and software in Cloud9?

Yes. Because Cloud9 runs on a real EC2 instance with a full Linux operating system, you can install packages using the standard package managers for your AMI. For Amazon Linux 2, that is yum. For Ubuntu-based instances, that is apt. You can install Node.js, Python packages, database clients, additional AWS tools, or any other software you need. Keep in mind that installed packages on instance store will be lost if the instance terminates, so if you rely on specific software, note it or script the installation so you can reproduce it quickly.

How is Cloud9 different from VS Code or other desktop IDEs?

The biggest difference is where the compute happens. With VS Code or Atom, your code runs on your local machine. With Cloud9, your code runs on an EC2 instance in AWS. This means Cloud9 gives you direct, authenticated access to AWS services from the terminal without any local configuration. It also means your work is tied to an internet connection and to a running EC2 instance. VS Code has a Remote Development extension that can connect to EC2 instances and give you a similar cloud-backed experience with a more feature-rich local editor, but for beginners learning AWS, Cloud9 requires fewer setup steps.

Do I need to set up IAM credentials separately for Cloud9?

No. Cloud9 uses a feature called AWS managed temporary credentials to give your environment access to AWS services. When you run AWS CLI commands in the Cloud9 terminal, they are authenticated using temporary credentials tied to your console session. You do not need to run aws configure or paste access keys into the terminal. This is one of the most useful defaults Cloud9 provides for learners. It eliminates a common source of confusion and permission errors that beginners encounter when setting up the AWS CLI on a local machine or a plain EC2 instance.

Is Cloud9 suitable for production use or just for learning?

Cloud9 is designed primarily as a development and learning environment. Professional development teams sometimes use it for pair programming or as a shared development workspace, because multiple people can access the same Cloud9 environment simultaneously. However, for managing production servers or running production workloads, direct EC2 access with proper IAM roles, security groups, and key management is more appropriate. Cloud9 is an excellent starting point for learning AWS and building projects, but as your work becomes more serious, you will want to develop familiarity with the full EC2 and IAM toolset as well.

Sources

AWS Cloud9 Documentation: Developer Tools in the AWS Management Console
AWS EC2 Free Tier: t2.micro eligibility and usage limits
AWS EC2 Instance Store Documentation: non-persistent storage behavior
AWS CLI Documentation: command reference for aws s3 ls and aws –version
Mastering AWS video series by Alston Godbolt (2018), transcript of “Creating an EC2 instance on Cloud9”