We are currently running Server 2012 and downloaded the management admin console to my 8.1 pro laptop. I am able to edit the 8.1/ server 2012 r2 only policies on my laptop. This is working well for us so far.
We are using 8.1 in our school district. We have around 1000 of the going now. So far biggest issues been user training. We've started moving some older xp machines 2gb ram to 8.1 and are seeing performance benefits.