As an investor, Murphy said, "it's more interesting if you can find a company that has a channel-friendly product, and the channel is actually going to do some of the heavy-lifting."

From the solution provider perspective, funding from a reputable venture capital firm suggests a level of stability for an emerging vendor.

It can be a pivotal factor in deciding to partner, said Jan Rosenberg, CEO of Ashburn, Va.-based managed service provider Datatility. One of the MSP's key partners is Panzura, a cloud storage software firm that's raised $90 million in funding.

"My whole business is based upon long-term relationships," Rosenberg said. "I've got to be careful that I don't pick a company that will go out of business—or that someone will purchase for one part of the technology and close down the other parts. We are pretty cognizant of [vendors'] financial health as best we can be."

At the same time, in order to compete effectively with massive MSPs, Datatility must "be more nimble and out-perform those guys" by working with cutting-edge vendors, Rosenberg said.

"A lot of people want alternatives to the public clouds, for a lot of different reasons," Rosenberg said. "As a smaller company, that doesn't have the reach that the big guys have, we've got to have the best-in-breed technology."

Panzura CEO Patrick Harr said he's witnessed the disruption of the traditional reseller model caused by the cloud--and also seen many channel partners figuring out how to partake in the new models that are emerging. "Hybrid cloud solutions are squarely in the wheelhouse to drive that opportunity set--for resellers just as much for customers," Harr said.

Partners have "significant strength with their customer relationships, but they need solutions to drive that continued relationship," he said.

Many venture capitalists see abundant opportunities to invest around the growing acceptance of the hybrid cloud as the dominant model for enterprises.

"For companies that have massive installed infrastructures, hybrid is going to be the way to operate for the foreseeable future," said Alex Benik, partner at Battery Ventures, who has worked with companies including Nutanix and AppDynamics.