Blog posts by Anna Pleshakova2025-08-26T15:53:16.0000000Zhttps://world.optimizely.com/blogs/anna-pleshakova/Optimizely WorldUpcoming Change: SendGrid Communications to Cuba and Syria<div class="p-rich_text_section">We want to inform you of an important update to our email delivery partner, <strong>Twilio SendGrid</strong>.</div>
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<div class="p-rich_text_section"><strong>What’s changing?</strong><br />Starting <strong>September 15, 2025</strong>, Twilio (including SendGrid) will no longer support communications to <strong>Cuba</strong> or <strong>Syria</strong>. This change is being made to align with evolving regulatory requirements and to ensure Twilio’s continued compliance as a trusted global communications provider.</div>
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<div class="p-rich_text_section"><strong>What this means for you:</strong></div>
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<li>Any <strong>email traffic sent via SendGrid</strong> to Cuba or Syria will be <strong>dropped</strong> (not delivered).</li>
<li>Any <strong>messaging traffic through Twilio</strong> to these countries will be <strong>blocked</strong>.</li>
<li>If your business currently sends communications to recipients in Cuba or Syria, you’ll need to update your workflows before September 15, 2025.</li>
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<div class="p-rich_text_section"><strong>Next steps:</strong></div>
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<li>Review your sending patterns to identify any traffic to Cuba or Syria.</li>
<li>If applicable, discontinue this traffic or transition to another provider that supports these regions.</li>
<li>Consider alternative tool if Cuba and Syria delivery is important to you</li>
<li>Explore Twilio’s compliance and best practices resources:
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<li><a class="c-link" href="https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines">Twilio Guidelines</a></li>
<li><a class="c-link" href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/sendgrid/glossary/drops">SendGrid Drops Documentation</a></li>
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">We recommend reviewing your setup now to ensure <strong>no disruption</strong> to your communications.</div>2025-08-26T15:53:16.0000000ZBlog postFurther Enhancing Production Database Scalability in DXP Cloud Services <div>About a year ago we announced that we are <a href="/link/2502974a919b43be954568f15310b0f0.aspx">improving the scalability of SQL databases in DXP Cloud Services</a>, focusing first on non-production databases. After seeing the benefits and carefully testing the impact in lower environments, we are now ready to extend this to production. </div>
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<div>To recap, the benefits of this new architecture are: </div>
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<li><strong>Management efficiency</strong> – Our solution simplifies the operation of hundreds, even thousands, of databases. It ensures all databases receive the necessary resources, driving optimal performance across various workloads. </li>
<li><strong>Auto-scaling</strong> – The system can intuitively allocate more resources during high-demand periods, maintaining high efficiency and responsiveness under fluctuating loads. </li>
<li><strong>Enhanced access security for SQL databases</strong> – We hardened technical controls to maintain confidentiality and integrity of customer data. </li>
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<div>As mentioned in a <a href="/link/718afd8c1b414983a3ad45dd927098c7.aspx">previous blog post</a> on this topic, this change has a consequence of disallowing developers having direct access to the database and its metrics. We are confident that the benefits mentioned above significantly outweigh this drawback. </div>
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<div>We are very eager to now extend the performance and scalability benefits across the platform’s production databases in 2025! Each customer will be contacted by our team at Optimizely to ensure we make this transition as seamlessly as possible. No immediate action is required from customers. </div>
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<div><strong>Questions? Here are some common FAQs below:</strong></div>
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<p>Q: How will this affect our live instances during the upgrade?<br />A: During the migration there will be a short downtime, on average it’s 3-5 minutes but can take a little longer depending on implementation.<br /><br />Q: Why do some databases take longer to migrate?<br />A: Transient issues in cloud infrastructure, high database load and/or slow application initialization. There are multiple reasons that can have an impact. The vast majority just takes 3-5 minutes. </p>
<p>Q: Could any orders be lost during the migration window?<br />A: We recommend the maintenance page to prevent order loss. <br /><br />Q: What happens to changes made in the CMS during the maintenance period? <br />A: Changes saved before the final step of the maintenance window will be saved.</p>
<p>Q: What happens to sessions and carts that are in the process of being converted into orders during checkout? <br />A: Orders will be accepted up to the final step when the database is migrated. Once migrated, the web app will be started again. </p>
</div>2025-01-27T14:53:27.0000000ZBlog post