Deploy Your Java Backend to the AWS Cloud in 30 Minutes Using EC2 and S3

The goal of this use case is to demonstrate how to deploy a Spring Boot application on an AWS EC2 instance using an S3 bucket for storage and retrieval of the application artifacts (JAR file).

1. Problem Statement:

Deploying a Spring Boot Application on AWS EC2 Instance Using S3 Bucket

In today's cloud-driven world, deploying applications in a scalable and reliable environment is crucial for developers and organizations. A common challenge for beginners and even intermediate developers is understanding the end-to-end workflow for cloud deployment of backend applications like a Spring Boot app.

The goal of this use case is to demonstrate how to deploy a Spring Boot application on an AWS EC2 instance using an S3 bucket for storage and retrieval of the application artifacts (JAR file).
This process will involve:

• Creating and configuring an AWS EC2 instance (Linux-based) for application hosting.

• Building a simple Spring Boot application with a REST API endpoint.

• Uploading the application’s JAR file to an AWS S3 bucket for remote storage.

• Connecting to the EC2 instance securely via SSH using a key pair.

• Downloading the JAR file from the S3 bucket to the EC2 instance.

• Installing Java (if needed) on the EC2 instance to run the Spring Boot application.

• Running the application and making it publicly accessible via the instance’s IP address.

• Configuring security groups to allow inbound traffic to port 8080 (default for Spring Boot apps) and SSH (port 22).

Key Challenges Addressed:

• Setting up a cloud server from scratch (EC2).

• Secure file transfers and resource access across AWS services (EC2 and S3).

• Configuring cloud security (Security Groups, Key Pairs).

• Deploying and running Java-based applications in a Linux environment.

• Ensuring public access to deployed services through proper IP and port configurations.

Why is this problem important?
In real-world cloud projects, deploying a backend app is a common first step toward building scalable microservices or full-stack cloud applications.
Understanding this workflow builds foundational knowledge in cloud infrastructure, server management, application deployment pipelines, and security practices — skills that are highly demanded in IT and DevOps roles.

Expected Outcome:
By completing this use case, learners will be able to:

• Successfully set up a secure Linux server on AWS EC2.

• Deploy a Spring Boot application using cloud storage (S3).

• Access their live Spring Boot application over the internet via a browser.

• Understand the deployment lifecycle and cloud integration basics.

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2. Why We Need This Use Case

Deploying a Spring Boot application to an AWS EC2 instance via S3 storage streamlines the deployment process, especially when handling large-scale applications or distributed systems. S3 acts as a reliable, durable, and highly available storage medium where your application’s JAR files can be stored, versioned, and fetched on-demand by your EC2 servers.
It also separates storage concerns from compute concerns, allowing teams to update apps without the need for direct manual file uploads each time.

This approach teaches you a real-world DevOps flow, where builds are first stored on centralized storage (S3) and then deployed automatically or manually to cloud servers.

Additionally, understanding this architecture improves your cloud deployment skills, making you job-ready for any cloud-native or DevOps-based engineering roles.

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3. When We Need This Use Case

• When you want to deploy applications without manually uploading JARs every time.

• When managing multiple environments (dev/staging/prod) with centralized application binaries stored in S3.

• When creating automation pipelines where EC2 servers pull application updates from S3 (in future, this can be part of CI/CD pipelines).

• When working in a production-ready cloud architecture involving AWS services.

• When you need a lightweight, cost-effective way of distributing your applications to multiple instances.

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4. Challenge Scenario-Based Questions