This article explains to get started with Amazon Web Services. It provides detailed steps on how to signup and setup your account.

1 - Account Creation Process

1. First go to https://aws.amazon.com and click "Create an AWS Account"
   
   
   
   
2. Select "I am a new user" and enter your email address
   
   
   
   
3. You will be required to enter a few additional details and choose your root password:
   
   
   
   
4. AWS will then require you to enter details about your company:
   
   
   
   
5. Your credit card details will be requested straight away:
   
   
   
   
6. AWS will now request you to verify your identity by phone:
   
   
   
   
7. AWS will now prompt you to select your support plan. You can go with basic for now and change it later.
   
   
   
   
8. Your signup is now finished. Click on "Complete Signup" and you will be redirected to the login page:
   
   
   
   
9. Upon logging in you will access the AWS console.
   
   

2 - Securing the account after creation

The account you just created as part of the account creation process is what's called the root account. You must ensure that the password for the root account is complex enough and not shared with anyone. You should always consider that this root account is more of a backup account to use in case of emergency. You should never have to login with this account on a regular basis. Instead you should create user accounts with proper roles and permissions.

Let's create a first user account with admin permissions.

1. Click on Services then search IAM
   
   
   
   
2. Go to the Users section then select Add User. For the username we recommend using an email address as it's easier for users to remember. Otherwise you can use traditional usernames (e.g. jdoe)
   
   
   
   
3. You can then select an AWS-managed policy for this user such as SystemAdministrator. Make sure to carefully choose the policies to apply for each user. Ideally you should use groups to properly organise your users.
   
   
   
   
4. You user is now available.
   
   

3 - More reading

It is likely you will need to get started with AWS EC2. We recommend reading the following article from AWS.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/get-set-up-for-amazon-ec2.html