Variables

Variables are one of the most powerful components of the SSIS architecture. In SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 DTS, these were called global variables, but they've been drastically improved on in SSIS. Variables allow you to dynamically configure a package at runtime. Without variables, each time you wanted to deploy a package from development to production, you'd have to open the package and change all the hard-coded connection settings to point to the new environment. Now with variables, you can just change the variables at deployment time, and anything that uses those variables will in turn be changed. Variables have the scope of an individual container, package, or system.