question on securing out-of-band management

["golovast" <golovast () yandex ru>]

  A few words about the network. It is a environment where security
is of a highest priority, because customer data is handled 
and a variety of regulations apply. Just like everyone else, we want 
to make the network reliable, secure, scalable, etc. We have decided
to use out-of-band management for the perimeter servers. It will be done
over a dedicated Ethernet interface. Servers are mostly microsoft, 
network gear is mostly cisco.

  I have two questions. 
First, did anyone here ever try using USB ethernet adapters for 
OOB in perimiter and high performance servers? A lot of servers 
don't have extra NICs. Sticking in USB adapters would be a lot 
easier, but I am still a bit hesitant. Internal NICs would be 
preferable, but its a lot of manual labor and downtime. Any big 
cons against using usb ethernet?

Second question is about security. How do you secure the oob management 
network? It obviously has it's pros, but even still it's a good way to 
bypass all other security layers. I was thinking about HIDS and locking
things down with ACLs and hardening servers. Also, no ports on the floor
assigned to that network and a VPN access with two-factor authentication
into it. Am I leaving anything out? How are you guys doing it? What are
the other alternatives? 

I'll appreciate any replies. Thanks.  
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