The guide details the process of installing the ELK Stack on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for cloud infrastructure logging, while also noting changes in the open-source landscape since Elastic closed Elasticsearch and Kibana in 2021, leading AWS to introduce OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboards as alternatives. It emphasizes that while starting with ELK is straightforward, managing it at scale can be complex, and suggests Logz.io as a managed service for those not wishing to handle the intricacies themselves. The setup involves creating a GCP account, deploying an application, and configuring firewall rules before installing and configuring Java, Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana on a GCP instance. The guide also covers setting up MetricBeat to collect system metrics and to integrate them into Kibana for visualization, highlighting the potential for further customization and scalability through additional beats.