SSH with Storage Servers

The storage servers could be treated more like a black box from a security perspective if it was not accessible via SSH. Working in environment where security is very high and being able to reach the servers over the management network causes the Security Team to not view Exadata as an appliance but as a group of servers which should be hardened, have HIPS on each component, etc. If we disabled SSH except for when applying patches to the Storage Servers, would this cause any other unforeseen issues? Are there any other workarounds from a security perspective to more isolate