This "Windows Phone 8.1 Security Overview" describes some new enterprise-security related features in WP 8.1:
Download Windows Phone 8.1 Security Overview from Official Microsoft Download Center
Among them is support for additional types of VPN connections (IKEv2, IPsec, SSL), which is one of the areas that you found to be lacking in 8.0.
The 8.1 update will be available this coming Monday or Tuesday through the developer "preview" path (it is the public release, not a preview).