Signing up

This step is, of course, fairly simple and self-explanatory. In order to sign up (if you haven't done so yet), open https://portal.aws.amazon.com in your browser, click on the Create a new AWS account button, and follow the steps. You will need an email address and your credit card information.

The two exceptions to this process are as follows:

• If you plan to deploy servers in China, then you need to create your account in the AWS China region at https://www.amazonaws.cn/.
• AWS has a special facility called GovCloud for specific regulatory needs of United States federal, state, and local agencies. To sign up for this, go to the following link at https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/contact/.

Amazon runs a free-tier program for new users. This is designed to help you to discover AWS services free of cost. Amazon gives free credit on most services. It is likely that over time the offer will change, so this book isn't going to cover the specifics of this offer, but the details are available at https://aws.amazon.com/free/.

Once you're done with the sign-up process, you will be on the AWS Management Console landing page. This screen can be a bit overwhelming as Amazon now has a lot of services, but you will quickly get used to it. If you are a fan of bookmarks, this page is definitely a prime candidate:

The account you just created is called a root account. This account will always have full access to all resources. Because of this, make sure that you keep your password in a safe place. The best practice is to use the root account only to create the initial user through the IAM service that we will discover shortly. In addition, it is strongly recommended to switch to multi-factor authentication (MFA) and use the identity service IAM—to manage user accounts, so pick a relatively complex password.