Pump Review: Features, Integration and Pricing 2023

Forbes was right when it wrote that Pump wants to become the new Costco. Only that in this case, Pump deals with cloud computing, which is the use of hosted services to manage a company’s computing. 

We’ll discuss that later, but if you already use Amazon Web Service (AWS) as your cloud computing solution, you’re familiar with its pricing. AWS uses various pricing models, including on-demand, reserved instances, and savings plans.

These payment models aim to make payment easier for businesses of all sizes. However, only large enterprises primarily benefit from them. Small businesses that cannot afford the reserved instances model may choose the “pay as you go, ” which results in higher spending. 

Pump organizes group buying for small businesses to prevent this, enabling them to use AWS with a subsidized pricing model. Read on for a full review of Pump, its business model, features, and more.

Pump Overview

Pump is an AWS group buying company that allows businesses to enjoy huge discounts on their AWS spend. Here’s an instance to help you understand group buying better. Imagine you and your friends need to buy swimsuits for a swimming event. You all have the same brand in mind. 

However, rather than visiting the seller individually, you volunteer to negotiate with the brand on their behalf. The seller, intrigued that some people want to buy their swimsuits at once, would happily offer a discount. This way, everyone in your circle can get swimsuits cheaper than they initially would. 

This is what Pump does for businesses that use Amazon’s cloud computing services. If you’re new to cloud computing, it is computing that lives on the internet. For instance, instead of your CPU, your programs run using a virtual brain. 

You can also store and access your information from anywhere in the world. Some cloud computing providers are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud platform, and Microsoft Azure. However, Pump only provides its group buying service to AWS businesses for now.

Instead of using Amazon’s pay-as-you-go pricing, these businesses now have access to the discounts  Amazon gives to long-term commitments. Therefore, they can save up to 60 percent of their cloud computing spending even after Pump has removed its incentive. 

Spandana Nakka created the group buying platform in 2022. From its inception till now, it has onboarded over 200 startups. Pump’s last funding round was a pre-seed round held in March 2022 and backed by investors like Y-combinator. As the company grows, it looks forward to adding other cloud computing providers to its platform.

• Established: 2022
• Founder: Spandana Nakka 
• Office: San Francisco, California, United States (Headquarters)

5 Core Features of Pump

Expert Opinion

Rating: 4.8/5

Pump is an excellent group buying platform for small businesses that want to cut down on their AWS cost.

We came across Pump while exploring cloud-saving options for small businesses. What attracted us to it was its group buying cost reduction model. Unlike what’s obtainable in the global market, it groups small enterprises into one to reduce their cloud spend. Through this, they can use more cloud services while paying less. 

However, it would be great if this value proposition was available on platforms other than AWS. Companies using Google Cloud Platform and Azure cannot benefit from it. Still, the company assures users that they’ll add these cloud providers and more soon. Apart from its cloud provider scope, we found no distaste with the platform. 

Its user interface is friendly and easy to use. Pump’s UI is so simple that it takes only about five minutes to onboard. Also, since it is free, you do not need a demo. Customers can create an account almost immediately and start experimenting with its benefits. 

While the platform is free, the company charges a small cut of the savings it obtains for its customers. We would’ve appreciated it if it had mentioned the specific percentage of the savings it takes.

Other features we liked about Pump include its savings summary and analysis. Pump shows you how much you’re saving compared to your past spending. Also, as time passes, Pump’s AI makes better purchase decisions for you, and you can see these results yourself on the dashboard. 

More so, we love its newly developed PumpGPT- a generative AI built and trained on the AWS support system. With over six million trained data points, it can answer your AWS questions for free. In all, Pump is an interesting company with a desirable value proposition. We expect to see it adopt more cloud providers and more sophisticated innovations as it grows.

Pump Notable Features

Pump uses its sophisticated AI to manage the entire group buying process. Its AI models are trained to facilitate discount purchasing, optimization, and selling. Here are some of the features it offers to help businesses save.

1. Savings Summary

Pump’s most critical value proposition is helping businesses save on AWS spend. Therefore, it gives its customers insights into their estimated and actual savings. Its estimated savings dashboard shows how much Pump can save you, regardless of your past savings plan.

It has a real-time tracker showing how much you have saved in total. It also highlights how this measures against your historical AWS spend. A typical benefit is that you can see how your savings increase over time as the AI adapts to your spending profile.

2. Past Savings Analysis

When customers sign up, Pump reviews their AWS accounts. It discovers and excludes reserved instance services from the group buying service. Reserved instance is the term Amazon uses for its long-term commitment plans. So, if you rent or book a cloud computing service for one to three years, you’ll get a discount on the base price.

Therefore, the past savings analysis removes the services already covered by this discount. Pump still gives you excellent coverage whether you sell or keep your reserved instances. After signing up, it will handle all your AWS financial operations.

3. VAT Removal

Sales or value-added taxes are consumption taxes usually required whenever value is added to a product or service. Digital goods such as AWS are not exempt. However, businesses that purchase AWS from Pump will not have to pay this.

When you sign up with Pump, you automatically inherit its tax setting. As a Delaware-incorporated business, it does not pay sales tax on AWS. Therefore, AWS will adjust your tax setting to zero regardless of location. Your invoices will also no longer carry tax information.

4. Other Features

Apart from the above, Pump also allows you to onboard multiple AWS accounts. All you need to do is create an account, after which you can import others. You can also control which team members have access to these accounts. What’s more, you maintain administrative control while inviting these people.

Other features Pump assures its users include permission-level control. That means you won’t have to worry about your data being compromised. The platform only has billing access and cannot retrieve your code or user data. In other words, it can only enroll you in group buying and claim discounts. It is also responsible for every purchase it makes on your behalf.

Pump Use Cases

Pump offers group buying for some of the most used AWS services. Below are a few of them. For the complete list, visit its website.

1. EC2 Linux/Unix

This is a cloud platform or virtual server for Linux or Unix applications. It offers developers easy access, secure computing capacity, and complete control over the deployment process. Pump allows businesses to save 59 percent of their regular EC2 spend.

2. Sagemaker

SageMaker is Amazon’s machine-learning builder. It allows developers and data scientists to build high-performance machine learning (ML) models at lower costs. Through its modules, they can efficiently train and deploy these ML models. Pump allows them to get about 58 percent off its original price.

3. Redshift

Amazon’s Redshift is a cloud data warehouse. It offers petabyte-scale storage and allows companies to efficiently access and analyze their data. Companies can save around 56 percent on their Redshift cost with Pump.

4. ECS

Amazon’s Elastic Container Service (ECS) allows you to deploy long-running applications using containers. Pump offers its users 49 percent off.

5. Lambda

AWS Lambda gives developers an environment in which to run their codes. This means they can execute their codes without worrying about server provision and management. With Pump, you can get 49% off your Lambda spend.

Pricing and Plans

Pump is free to use. It does not charge its users an upfront fee. However, it does take a small cut of the savings it acquires for each group- a small percentage of the total volume tier discount. Furthermore, it offers a money-back guarantee when it makes a purchase users aren’t satisfied with.

You can sign up immediately or schedule a demo with a team member. Clicking the schedule demo button will lead to another page where you’ll select a day and time for the meeting. After this, you’ll be prompted to enter details such as your name, email, monthly AWS spend, and country. You can also add other guests you’d like to have on board during the demo.

Terms and Policies

Pump’s terms of use document contains the guiding principles intended for users to abide by while using its platform. The document opens with a list of terms users might want to know. It also mentions that to use the platform, users must register or authorize other users. 

For the platform to function properly, customers must also give Pump access to their AWS services reserve instances and savings plan. They must also allow it to buy and sell services on their behalf.

Pump’s privacy policy document shows the types of data it collects from users and how it uses them. Some types of data it collects are email addresses and sign-up information such as names, company details, and AWS access. Its website also uses cookies to analyze your use and diagnose technical problems.

According to the group buying company, it uses this data to maintain customer records and manage conversations. It doesn’t state its timeframe for keeping data, but you can request yours. You may ask for access, correction, restriction, or deletion of your data.

Customer Support

Pump’s customer support is available to both users and non-users. To reach out to the team, click the Contact Us button at the bottom of the page. A new page will open with their email address and other contact means. You can email them at support@pump.co or message them at +1 650 468 0297.

Furthermore, you can check out its support documentation for answers to general questions. If you would like to schedule a meeting with a team member, follow the instructions in the plans and pricing section above.

Conclusion

Statistics from CloudZero show that 54 percent of small and medium enterprises spend over $1 million on cloud resources yearly. Still, they want to invest more in cloud services to enjoy other benefits. Pump allows these SMEs to do this at a lower cost.

Its solution is based on AWS pricing. An SME can save more on these services if it enters a group buying with other SMEs. What’s more, it can delegate the buying and selling to Pump’s well-trained AI. If it’s not satisfied, it gets a money-back guarantee. It’s an advantage as these businesses have more to gain than lose. Visit pump.co to get started today.

Contributors: Adenike Omope (Technical Writer), Okesipe Olumide (Graphic Designer)