Meet AWS Cloud9, The Shiny New Browser Based IDE

AWS has launched a new browsed based IDE at its re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. AWS Cloud9 is the name of the game, and actually has roots in the company the cloud giant acquired last year.

Amazon was expected to talk about Cloud9 at re:Invent, and sure as sunshine it did.

Cloud9 is based on the Ace Editor, and also incorporates the work Cloud9 did on its c9.io IDE.

On the whole, it is not all that much different from similar integrated development environments like Sublime Text. But as Amazon Web Services stressed during its keynote, it is deeply integrated with its cloud platform and is completely plugged into the AWS ecosystem.

Additionally, it also allows for collaborative editing, an important consideration nowadays.

The tool comes with preinstalled debugging tools, and offers built-in support for all the popular languages like JavaScript, Python, PHP, and more.

As AWS argues, this is the first cloud native IDE. And the proof of this lies in the fact that developers can create cloud environments and start new instances right from this powerful new browser based solution. The tool also lets users debug Lambda functions for developers that have gone serverless.

This deep integration with the AWS platform will be the main attraction for developers to go with Cloud9. Competing cloud providers like Microsoft and Google already offer their own IDEs for cloud and mobile developers, and so does Amazon now.

At the end of the day, this is the fruit of the Cloud9 acquisition.

And boy, does it taste sweet.