MS told me that anything other than 8.1 core is not recommended

[netuser]

What's the difference between Consumer and Business version of Surface 3?

The business versions are sold through business resellers like CDW and Insight and come preloaded with 8.1 Pro installed at the factory so you don't have to deal with adding Pro Packs if you want 8.1 Pro or Enterprise.
A Pro Pack to upgrade to 8.1 Pro costs $99. Buying the business version with 8.1 Pro already installed is only $50 more than the consumer version.
Anyone planning to install 8.1 Pro or Enterprise should buy the business version.
https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/business/overview

You should also be able to use any Premier Support packages you have for support.
The Office 365 Personal subscription might not be included in the commercial version. This edition of Office 365 does not included commercial use rights and most businesses will Office available to them through another program.
So, if you are planning on taking advantage of the 1 year of Office 365 Personal and will be using the Surface 3 for home use, that might be an exception where it could be cheaper to just buy the consumer version plus a Pro Pack.
$99 for Pro Pack on the consumer version is less than $50 for commercial version + $69 1 year Office Personal subscription. You will have to decide if the convenience of having Pro pre-installed is worth the extra $19.

 

[jnjroach]

Also there is a Business SKU that has 4GB RAM and 64GB Storage....

 

[netuser]

Also there is a Business SKU that has 4GB RAM and 64GB Storage....

Great. That would be the perfect device for our company. 2 GB is kind of tight for multitasking so we would go with 4GB, but we also don't want or need users to store gigabytes of data on mobile devices even with drive encryption. The devices would be used for working on a few documents and PowerPoint presentations offline locally plus web access, email, video conferencing and IM and the rest would be done over VPN and Remote Desktop to their primary desktop workstation. No need for 128GB drives on the Surfaces to do what they would be intended to do.

I just noticed the $549 model at CDW is 4GB RAM with 64GB storage.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Surface-3-64GB-tablet/3674365.aspx

I had assumed it was 2GB when I glanced at it earlier.
So, for $50 over a 2GB 8.1 Core model at Best Buy or the Microsoft Store, you get 4GB RAM and 8.1 Pro at CDW. Seems worth it.

 

[GreyFox7]

I got a deep discount on my Pro pack though so it was cheaper than a Biz sku.