Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) simplifies the deployment and management of the Elastic Stack on Kubernetes, facilitating the setup of Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Beats. The guide outlines configuring ECK with SAML authentication using Auth0 as an identity provider and demonstrates the implementation of a hot-warm-cold architecture for managing data lifecycle stages. Utilizing Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), the setup involves creating specific node pools for different data tiers, each with tailored hardware configurations and storage classes. Key features include node and pod affinity, dedicated storage classes, and readiness probes, ensuring optimal data distribution and system resilience. The process also involves creating Kubernetes resources like ConfigMaps for SAML metadata and setting up ingress controllers with SSL for secure access. The detailed configuration covers the creation and deployment of necessary resources, including Elasticsearch and Kibana instances, ensuring a robust and scalable production environment for data management.